Le nozze di Figaro at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

Rebecca Evans and Rosemary Joshua are the main attractions of Welsh National Opera’s co-production of Mozart’s great comedy

Two "home-grown" sopranos, Rebecca Evans and Rosemary Joshua, are the main attractions of Welsh National Opera's co-production of Mozart's great enlightenment comedy, Le nozze di Figaro, first seen at Barcelona's Gran Teatro del Liceu last November with entirely different musical personnel. A singer with a significant international career in the lighter Mozart roles and as the ingénue Sophie in Richard Strauss's "Mozartian" parody, Der Rosenkavalier, Evans has latterly become the Cardiff-based company's resident prima donna. She has gradually moved her ripening soprano towards the pure lyric roles of Pamina in The Magic Flute, Mimi in La bohème, and, after 10 years as one of the world's leading Susannas in Figaro, her first Countess in Lluis Pasqual's production.

Joshua, Cardiff-born - though, astonishingly, this is her début appearance with the company - also counts as a veteran Susanna, but she retains a pristine, gleaming quality to her voice, which blends ravishingly with Evans's